Masterpiece Selection that Capture the Essence of Her Better Self: ...

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

Valerie St. Cyr, seizes a chance for excitement and money, deserts her infant daughter Joan and her impoverished husband and runs away to Paris with the Count Du Poissy. Years later, without knowing that they are mother and daughter, both Valerie and Joan fall in love with artist Julian St. Saens, who rejects the former but becomes engaged to the latter. Enraged, Valerie convinces the count to kidnap Joan, but after she is captured, Joan stabs the count to death. When Valerie learns that Joan is her daughter, she takes the blame for the murder and goes to the guillotine while Joan, still unaware that Valerie is her mother, makes plans with Julian for their marriage.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Spider perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

Dick, who thinks Elsie is a farmer's daughter, and Elsie, who believes Dick to be a hired man, fall in love with each other. While returning from a trip to the city shortly afterwards, Dick accidentally exchanges traveling bags with Spike, a burglar, on his way to rob the Dunbars' summer home. Pinkarter, a detective, witnesses the incident and trails Dick. Late that night, the young man sees Elsie apparently breaking into a cottage. The girl had accidentally been locked out of the farmhouse where she had been stopping, and therefore decided to return to her father's country home nearby. Ignorant of this, Dick believes Elsie a thief and follows her into the house, Spike also gets inside, and the three are presently bagged by Pinkarter and lugged to the village lockup. In his effort to establish his identity, Dick requests the detective to examine his travelling bag. When this is done, a fine collection of burglar's tools is brought to view. Thus Elsie is led to think her lover a thief. Although Dick eventually clears himself, this comes too late; Elsie's identity has been established by her father, who then took her home. Still in ignorance of each other's identity, the heartbroken lovers return to the city. Some time later Dick accompanies a friend to a dinner given at the Dunbar's home. To his intense surprise, the boy finds himself confronting Elsie. Still believing him to be a burglar, Elsie shouts for help. Dunbar is about to hand the luckless youth over to the police when the snarl is untangled, and the course of true love allowed to run smoothly.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

When rich civil engineer Robert Penfield goes to a small Quaker town in Pennsylvania to supervise a job, he meets Patience, who soon falls in love with him, but Robert is engaged to Edith, who plans to marry him for his money only. To remain close to Robert, Patience returns with him to the city to take a job as his mother's secretary. After Robert and Edith's wedding, and following the birth of their child, Patience takes care of the baby much more enthusiastically than Edith does; in fact, Edith is preoccupied with Paul Dunstan, a former suitor who wasn't rich enough to marry her, but who has since inherited a fortune. Finally, the couple elope, but they both die when Paul's yacht sinks. After the accident, Robert realizes that he loves Patience, and marries her.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Pretenders perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

A professional burglar has taught his daughter the tricks of his trade, and she learned well. She's proud of her "career", but one day an unidentified man saves her from drowning, and the close call makes her think about changing her life. However, her father has a big heist he wants her to help him with: stealing a string of valuable pearls that an important politician is going to give to his fiancée. She reluctantly decides to help her father with the burglary, but an unexpected turn of events could result in her going to prison for something she didn't do.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

A Russian refugee who masquerades as Zara, niece of Francis Markrute, comes to his home and marries Lord Tancred, a scion of the English nobility, after a long series of misadventures she makes a full confession to her supposed uncle and to her husband regarding her origin and her young son by a former marriage to a Russian prefect of police, whom an infuriated mob murdered for his cruelty. Tancred is stunned, but only for a moment. Overwhelmed with forgiveness he avows his undying love.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Reward of Patience perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

Kate Tarleton grows up on a Southern plantation and becomes engaged to her guardian, Dr. Robert Manning, a famous surgeon. When Robert, Kate, and her younger sister Mary Lou visit New York, where the doctor wishes to conduct medical experiments, the superstitious Kate goes to the home of a fortune-teller named Stella Hill. Stella, whose principal business is white slave trafficking, drugs Kate and forces her to work in a "den of vice," run by Stella and her accomplice Jimmy Bristol, where she contracts syphilis and goes insane. Robert, Detective Ellis, and a lawyer named Billy Meredith rescue Kate, who recovers her sanity but remembers nothing of her bondage. Robert uses Stella and Jimmy in his experiments and through them discovers a cure for Kate's illness. District Attorney Scott is questioning Robert about the propriety of his experiments when Kate enters and sees Jimmy. Her memory suddenly returns, and she narrates her story to Scott, clearing Robert's name.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

The children of a a novelist, Nicholas, contract scarlet fever. His wife Anne stays in the house to take care of them, but the house is quarantined by the authorities and Nicholas, not being allowed in the house, takes a room in town until the quarantine is lifted. Lonely, he begins to feel attracted to his illustrator, Esmee. They begin an affair, but soon Nicholas finds that Esmee's expensive tastes are driving him to bankruptcy. His wife finds out about the affair, and devises a plan to teach her husband a lesson and get his mistress out of the picture at the same time.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Girl Who Came Back perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

One moment before she dies, the aged, philanthropic, and universally respected Duchess of Maldon sees her life flash before her. As Madge, a young gypsy woman, two men fight for her, after which the winner, John, forces her to marry him. Then Madge deserts John and begins a romance in England with Harold, the youngest son of the Duke of Maldon. Soon, however, Harold fights with his older brother, who has criticized the affair with a married woman, and, believing that he has killed his brother, Harold leaves Madge behind and smuggles himself out of the country. Years later, Harold, who has found out that his brother did not die, meets Madge once again, and, determined not to let him leave her a second time, Madge kills John so that she and Harold can marry. Successfully covering up past scandals, Madge and Harold begin a life so sedate and distinguished that they quickly become England's model couple.

Dir: Robert G. Vignola

Molly McGill, a scrub-woman, labors long hours so that her children will not have to face life in the slums. Driven to desperation after her husband and baby daughter are killed in the streets, and fearful that her little son Jimmy will suffer the same fate, Molly accepts the proposition of Harvey Brooks, a broker in one of the offices that she cleans, to become his mistress. Keeping her life a secret from her son, she places him in a vocational school. When Jimmy finishes his education, Molly returns to her life as a scrub-woman. Then one day she reads in the paper of an heroic act performed by Jimmy, who is now a fireman. Unable to resist temptation, she creeps past the fire station where she sees Jimmy with his sweetheart, Dora Palmer. Later the girl seeks employment as a stenographer in Brooks's office where Molly is again working, and she keeps a watchful eye on Dora. True to Molly's suspicions, Brooks attacks Dora and Molly springs to her aid. In the ensuing fight, Brooks is killed and a fire breaks out. Jimmy comes to the rescue, but there is time to save only one of the women; and so Molly is left behind to die in peace, knowing that her son has escaped the slums.